Ever The Same
by talkingtothemoon
Summary: Eva tries her hand at internet dating but the person she meets on the other end is a little closer to home than she believes. Is Mr Cool really internet dating too? Will it be possible for such a strong friendship to blossom into something more?
1. Chapter 1

**Main Pairing:** Luke and Eva  
><strong>Characters: <strong>The SLiDE5 (And maybe some minor characters.)  
><strong>Rating:<strong> T  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Eva tries her hand at internet dating, but the person she meets on the other end is a little closer to home than she'd ever believe. Is 'Mr Cool' _really _internet dating too? And will it be possible for such a strong friendship to blossom into something more?  
><strong>Setting:<strong> Brisbane  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I do not own SLiDE, or any of the character used in this story.

**Chapter One**

She sat on her bed, her body curled up in a ball whilst her head was upright, staring out the window, silently admiring the scenery of which she never usually thought twice about. It had been a weird few months for Eva. She'd met a bunch of new friends, friends who weren't similar to her in many ways, but people she never failed to have fun with. She'd met Ash, almost been pregnant, found out he had a wife and then split up with him again. And of course there was the horrible, but not regretful memory of having sex with Ed. As she stretched her arms out, coming out of her curled up position, she sighed a little. It just seemed as if there was something missing.

Eva had always been independent, in need of no one but herself and she liked it that way, usually. But sometimes it did get a little lonely, at the very least. She enjoyed having Ash, even if he _was _married. Although it was important to put a stop to it, she liked the attention he gave her, how he looked after her, how he cared. It wasn't frequent that she'd experience that from any guy.

A sudden beeping noise began, soon stopping after a quick few seconds. Rolling over to the other side of her bed, Eva grabbed her phone from the table, silently reading the text she'd just received. _The parents have gone off the rails again, I'm coming over 2 yours else I'm afraid I may just kill em. C u soon.. Scar._ _xox. _Eva giggled slightly, half text speak, half not? Who did that?

It wasn't long before Eva heard the sudden high-pitched voice of Scarlett's outside her window, screaming her name. She got up and looked out, opening the window in front of her.

'Come on in, door's open,' Eva yelled down, before quickly running her way down the stairs to greet her guest. It wasn't often she'd have people in her house so she wasn't entirely sure how to amuse Scarlett whilst she was round.

'EVA! You got my text, right?' She asked, grinning excitedly as soon as she'd entered the house. Eva nodded as she replied to Scarlett's question.

'Yeah.' She paused for a seconds, letting out a slight laugh, remembering Scarlett's text. 'You know, if Tam was here, she'd have given you an awfully long lecture about that text talk you use.'

'Yeah, I know right. But she isn't here and it's kinda awkward texting with long nails. I'm always scared it'll chip them,' Scarlett because to mumble on, Eva not so much interested in what her best friend had to say but nodding along and laughing at her anyway.

'Cmon, let's go up to my room, the rents will be home soon,' Eva sighed, closing the front door and showing Scarlett the way.

'So your parents? They're not your real parents then? Families confuse the hell out of me,' Scarlett asked, acting thick as usual. She wasn't thick at all, but Eva couldn't tell whether it was just an act or what it was. Either way, she knew that Scarlett knew full well about the parent situation.

'No. I thought you knew that, Scar?'

'Thought I should be sure,' she began as she passed around Eva's room, picking up pretty much everything and anything remotely interesting she could find and looking at it intensely whilst continuing to mumble to her friend. 'It's funny really, I always thought my family was screwy. But then I met you and Luke and Tammy. Mine seems quite normal now.'

'If it's so normal, then why did you need to come here?' Eva questioned, a friendly but intrigued tone to her voice, she'd just presumed Scarlett was in trouble with them, which was nothing abnormal. As Scarlett turned round and gained eye-contact with her, she smiled as her as she waited for her answer. As annoying as she could sometimes be, she always had time for Scarlett.

'Oh you know,' she began, turning quickly back round again and placing the last object she'd picked up back in its original position, 'I may have…borrowed a little bit of money without asking and now they're pissed at me.' She laughed at herself, knowing they'd get over it and walked over to Eva's bed, sitting opposite her. Eva didn't reply to her, it was exactly as she'd thought, nothing big. She closed her eyes briefly, before sighing loudly.

'I'm gonna regret this, but I need your advice,' Eva stated, suddenly, changing the subject.

'My speciality. What do you need advice on? Is it clothes? Oh please say it's clothes, I saw this gorgeous top in the mall the other day and I think it would really-'

'Scar! Shut-up. It's not clothes,' Eva replied, interrupting Scarlett, raising her voice a little.

'Oh. Ok. Well what is it then?' She asked, sounding intrigued but a little nervous at the same time. The last time they'd had a conversation remotely similar to this, it was about the potential pregnancy. Eva walked over to the corner of her room, picking up her laptop and throwing it down on the bed, opening the screen to the page she'd been looking at previously in the day.

'I'm thinking of maybe signing up to this site, 'Instant-click.' I know I'm not usually into this stuff, but it could be a lot of fun? Right?' She stared at the screen, in a daze. She couldn't decided whether it was or wasn't a good idea.

'Lots and lots of fun. It'd be heaps more fun if you pretended to be someone else though. Like I did to dad, the expression on his face when he found out was just the best thing I have ever witnessed.'

'And why would I do that? Why can't I just be myself?' Eva asked, starting to wonder if telling Scarlett about this was a good idea.

'Cmon Eve, there are heaps of weirdos out there and this way they don't have to know you. _You _get to know them and _then _show them what you're really like. Believe me on this one, it'll work a whole lot better.'

'So what now? You expect me to put some size 0, bimbo as my display picture?'

'That _would _be good. But no, keep it real,' Scarlett grinned in reply as she leaned over to Eva and snatched the laptop off of her, beginning to type a profile out quickly before uploading the first decent picture she could find. 'There, all done.' She stated, clapping her hands together in excitement. Taking her laptop back, Eva stared down at the screen, laughing at Scarlett's words.

'Fun, glamorous and up for whatever? _Glamorous?_' She laughed, in disbelief.

'Trust me, it always gets the lads. Means the hot ones go for you, I have _so _much experience that you should be paying me for this.'

'Ok, so now what?' Eva asked, not knowing how these dating sites worked.

'Now we wait. _Or _you can search for guys you find attractive.'


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Their conversation was interrupted as Eva's phone buzzed once again, this time for longer.

'Well aren't _you_ popular,' Scarlett stated as Eva reached for her phone, accepting the call and putting it straight up to her ear.

'Luke, hi, what's up?'

'LUKEEY,' screamed Scarlett, in her usual bubbly voice, moving her mouth closer to the phone, making sure he'd be able to here her.

'What, now? Right, ok, yeah, fine, I'll be right round,' Eva replied to Luke, ignoring Scarlett's screeching next to her. She soon ended the call, jumping off of the bed and staring down at Scarlett who was still sat there.

'I have to head over to Luke's.'

'You two aren't secretly screwing each other behind our backs, _are you_?' 

'No. What'd give you that idea?'

'It's just you spend a lot of time together. Just you two. Alone. It's kinda cute really.'

'Yeah, so do me and you. And there's certainly nothing going on _there_.' Staring at Scarlett, she could tell she wasn't convinced. But herself and Luke? That was enough to make anyone laugh. 'We just get each other, as friends. He understands me, I understand him. Besides, he's more than hung up on Tammy still.'

'Yeah, you're right. Shame really, I really don't see what he sees in that girl. She's not even that good a kisser.'

'You would know. So, are you coming, or are you just gonna hang around in my room?'

'Nah, I'd rather not. I think I'm just gonna go hang round Ed's. You have no idea how hilarious his family are.'

After a quick goodbye, the girls went their separate ways. For Eva, today she'd intended to keep to herself, enjoy her own company for a while. Obviously that had failed though, first with Scarlett and now with Luke. The walk to Luke's wasn't far and luckily, it was a beautiful day. The sun shone down, bouncing off her short, pink hair, illuminating it in every way possible, you could probably see it a mile off. On days like this, she felt grateful that she lived in Australia, this kind of beauty just didn't exist anywhere else.

She began to wonder what Luke wanted help with and why it was so urgent. She recalled him saying on the phone that he needed 'help with shit.' _Must've fucked things up with Tammy again then, _Eva thought to herself, unable to help but laugh a little. Their relationship-or whatever it was- was getting far too messy that it was almost tragic. Although the others found his dick-ish ways frustrating at times, Eva admired him, not that she'd tell him that, may just burst his head. He was never afraid have fun though and do what _he _wanted to do. Despite this though, she could see the strong connection he and Tammy had and how into her he was, even if he'd never truly admit it. Often it seemed as if he'd open up to her, more than any of the other four, even Tammy. She'd never try and purposely start deep conversations with him and make him feel uncomfortable though, which was probably the reason for him opening up to her. Sometimes she'd just watch from afar though, try and read him, she knew she had a talent at reading people. In fact, sometimes it felt as if she knew him better than he did, at times he didn't seem to know himself very well at all.

Recently she'd found that Luke would just walk into her house, without a care in the world. When she approached his house however, she noticed his brother, Dylan's ute parked outside the house so thought it'd be wise to knock the door. She reached her index finger up to the doorbell, pressing it only once as she waited, arms crossed, for someone to answer. Several seconds later she saw a dark shadow through the door, approaching it. A sigh of relief washed over her as she realised the silhouette was no where near tall enough to be Dylan. As much as the guy seemed alright lately, he was still quite frightening.

It wasn't long until the door was open and she could see Luke stood there, staring back at her, his eyes lit up-not in the same way they did when he saw Tammy, but they just said 'I'm glad you're here.' God, now she was even reading the story his eyes were telling.

'Thanks for coming, Eva,' he smiled, walking through to the lounge, looking behind him every so often to make sure she was following him.

'It's no problem,' she stated, truthfully, as she followed him through. 'So let me guess, you've fucked things up with Tammy _again _and you need my help to fix it?'

'How did you know?' Luke asked, not so surprised by her words, he knew she could always work these things out and this time, it was pretty obvious.

'I dunno,' Eva replied, shrugging her shoulders before continuing. 'I guess it was the tone of voice you used on the phone. It just kind of screamed 'my love life's fucked.''

'And there was me thinking the only thing screaming was Scar.' Luke flopped himself down on the couch, gesturing for Eva to do the same. She gracefully sat down next to him, crossing her legs as she re-gained full eye-contact with him. She'd never realised before how beautiful his eyes really were. Seeing beauty in things for the first time was always an exciting moment for Eva. Usually though, she wouldn't find so much physical beauty in something the rest of the world did. And well, Luke's eyes were probably almost as in demand as his dick seemed to be. She soon snapped out of her thoughts, remembering what she'd turned up at Luke's to do.

'So are we gonna get this sorted, or what?' She asked, with a large smile on her face.

'That'd be good. Bear in mind that _this_ is Tammy though. The fucking most stubborn girl in the universe.' Eva sighed to herself, not surprised at all by Luke's words.

'What did you do?' She asked, a smile curving on her lips, she couldn't help it. The amount of times she'd asked Luke this question was uncountable.

'You don't what? I don't have a clue. It was just-like-words, words she didn't like apparently. Things stream out of my mouth all the time; I don't even know what I'm on about half the time. Shouldn't she know that by now?'

'Are you trying to tell me she dumped you? _Again?_' 

'Last time she said we 'weren't getting back together.' _This _time she said we 'weren't getting back together, _ever_.' Fucking girl,' he moaned as Tammy's droning words from the night before came into focus in his head.

'Then maybe it's time you let her go, time you gave up on the idea of you and her?'

'Truth is though, last night I gave up and I went and got pissed, had a fucking great time. Next minute, I see her standing in the club, watching me. I mean, what is with that? What does that _mean_; does she still want me, or what?' He replied, beginning to get a little frustrated.

'I know one thing, she does really like you.'

'She may wanna try acting like it.'

'You don't act like you like her either, not really. _I_ know you do, else you wouldn't be getting so pissed off right now. But does she know?'

'Fuck this. Tonight I _will _get over this shit, for good.'

'Screwing other girls doesn't help, you know that,' Eva stated. She knew exactly why he did it, but that was something not many people would understand and it probably wasn't helpful for Luke either. It wasn't going to work, it never had before and it never would now.

'It's far simpler though.' Eva nodded a little, without meaning to. She didn't want to encourage him, but she couldn't help but agree with him just a little bit.

'I'm on a mission myself. A mission to find something fun and un-complicated that doesn't _just_ contain sex,' Eva explained, having no idea how Luke would react to her new plan.

'Fuck that.' He shook his head, not even bothering to think about the idea. 'That just doesn't exist.'

'Well I'll make it exist. You should try doing the same thing.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

It had been three days since Eva had signed up to the dating website and so far no one had taken her fancy. She stared blankly at the screen, scrolling the mouse over the 'delete account' button. This was the most pointless waste of time ever. She sighed loudly to herself and moved the mouse downwards, staring at her profile. Eden? _Why_ did Scarlett feel it was necessary that she called herself by a different name? She clicked on her inbox and scrolled through the dozens of weirdo's attempting to speak to her, deleting them in turn, the spelling on some of the messages was horrendous. She was hardly Tammy, but when people sent messages consisting of 'u k bbe,' there was nothing more to do other than pressing delete. The messages seemed to be getting worse, until she came to the final one that was, she opened the message up, not expecting anything remotely decent. She stared at the guy's profile picture. He was terribly attractive, tanned, with dark hair, exactly her type. She fixed her eyes on the writing and read the message quietly aloud to herself.

'_Hi Eden, you're cute, plus you sound like epic fun. _

_The greatest combo. _

_We should chat and maybe more, reckon we'd have a laugh. _

_Send something back. Liam.'_

She giggled uncontrollably at her computer screen. She really couldn't believe she was doing this, but what did she have to lose right now? She thought carefully about her reply, it was important to be herself, yet this alter-ego Scarlett had set up at the same time. She couldn't give too much about her real-self away though. She read her typed out message several times before hitting the send button and it wasn't long until 'Eden' and her new friend, 'Liam' were deep in conversation.

'_So, what are you looking for on here?'_ The guy typed, quickly back after they'd sent several messages to one another.

'_Something serious, yet uncomplicated, if that exists. Do you think it does?'_ She typed back, oblivious as to whom this mystery guy was.

'_Perhaps.'_

'Liam' didn't exist at all, alike 'Eden,' he was completely made up. At the other end of the internet, sat Luke, restless to be sat down for so long yet as determine as ever to get something out of this site. Eva's previous words a few days back had inspired him and coincidently he'd set up a fake account on the exact same site, despite it not being his usual scene. He knew he could get any girl being himself. But half the time his looks meant they'd want him for one thing and although he enjoyed that 'one thing,' it was time to start searching for something more than that, he always enjoyed trying out new things. Not only that though, he'd do anything to get over Tammy and having sex with thousands of different girls had stopped working. He sat there, on the couch, his laptop on his lap, as his head continuously wondered what the fuck he was doing.

'_So, you're seventeen and on a dating site, won't you parents be pissed?'_ The words suddenly showed up on his screen, he knew this was a bad idea, worse than he'd thought, but he had to keep at it. For a few minutes he hadn't thought about Tammy and it felt great. Besides, the thought in his mind that the girl at the other end may actually be as awesome as she sounded was something to hold on to.

'_I do what I want,' _he wrote back, using the most honest words the girl had heard from him so far.

'_Nice.'_

'_How about you then, babe? Being a girl and that, surely your parents are way more hardcore?'_

'_My parents aren't around and the folks I live with have realised they can't control me.' _Eva couldn't believe that she was already spilling this 'family stuff' to some guy off the internet. Despite promising herself that she was determine _**not **_to be Eva, but Eden instead, it actually felt good. Sometimes speaking to people you didn't know was easier than speaking to your friends, especially when that was in person. And on the other side of the internet, Luke was thinking the same thing. He didn't have a reputation to keep up when he was on there, he could be whoever and whatever he wanted and no one would care. He had the chance to find someone who knew _him _for him, instead of what he was.

'_Ok, so, my parents are actually dead, they have been since I was twelve. I don't like talking about it much,_ _because people never understand, they just give you sympathy, 'special consideration' and whatever else. I don't fucking want all that. I want to be treated normally, you know what I mean?_

'_I get it. I'm sorry to hear that though, and me saying that isn't sympathy by the way. Actually, I think you're lucky in fact.'_

'_Why's that?' _Luke asked, truly intrigued. Suddenly everything Eva had promised herself she wouldn't write was flooding out as she typed quickly on the keyboard, unable to stop her fingers from moving.

'_Well, at least you had twelve years to get to know them. Sometimes I guess I wish I'd been able to spend my early years with my parents. I wouldn't like to now though, everything's changed, I'm actually happy without them. It must be special though, remembering your childhood and the good times you had with them.'_

'_I guess you're right, girl.'_

The conversation continued and began to lighten up a lot more as it went on. The two hours spent just talking sped by quickly. Whether it was about their lives, their family or just casual flirting now and then, the two of them were already slowly beginning to become infatuated in their conversations with each other. When they spoke, nothing else mattered; all other thoughts flew out of their minds. Somehow though, without realising it, they'd managed to stay away from the 'friends' topic. If they hadn't then they'd probably had soon realised who each other were, now that would be embarrassing.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

The evening quickly approached and Eva had organised to meet the others outside one of the coolest clubs in town. The constant bickering between Luke and Tammy was likely to put a damper on things, but she'd learnt to ignore that and carry on having the best time ever. They hadn't been hanging out much as a group recently, when Luke and Tammy had been together, the two of them enjoyed their time alone and well, now they just didn't want to be around each other at all. Tonight was all down to Scarlett and Ed though; together the two of them made a great team and had managed to persuade the whole group to get together again, _even _Tammy.

As she arrived outside the club, the first person Eva noticed was Ed, whom was wondering around like a lost sheep. She walked over to him, a smile on her face.

'Hey Ed,' she said happily, soon noticing Tammy appear from behind him. 'Hey Tams.'

'Oh, hi Eva. Luke's not here yet, is he?' She asked worriedly, as she looked around, hoping he'd be off elsewhere with his 'cooler' friends.

'Nah haven't seen him,' she replied, before she noticed Ed starting to worry about not being able to get it. It was _always _him. He just didn't know how to act, it was funny really. It wasn't long until Scarlett and Luke came walking up to them, they shared a quick spliff and before they knew it, they were in the club, Ed included. Eva walked her way over to the bar, ordering her drink. Luke soon followed her over, sitting himself next to her on one of the bar stools.

'Tammy's still giving me the evils,' he moaned, looking completely pissed off.

'Maybe if you talked to her instead of just constantly staring then-'

'Nah, I'm done with talking, time for the fun to start.' As the barman passed Eva her drink over, Luke stared at it, shaking his head before turning to the man himself.

'Tequila shots please, mate.'

Eva stared at him shaking her head back. She knew all he was trying to do was wash the pain of Tammy away, in fact, the way he acted made her laugh.

'Just trying to liven things up,' Luke said with a smile, glaring at Eva. She shook her head again, grabbing one of the shots he'd just been given and downing it as quickly as she could. Luke stared at her in amazement, his eyes lighting up slightly.

'Let's get back to the other,' she said, smiling back at him, proudly.

As they got back to the others, Scarlett welcomed them with a loud, excited scream. She was loud enough when she was sober, but when she was drunk of stoned, or both, she was a hundred times worse. Already feeling awkward, Luke wondered off, his remaining shots in hand, beginning to dance with as many different girls as was possible. Scarlett walked closer to Eva, wanting all the gossip on this dating website she'd remembered helping Eva sign up to.

'SO... Met any cute guys on this dating website yet?' Scarlett asked, wanting nothing but details.

'Cute isn't really my style, Scar.' 

Over-hearing their conversation, Tammy took a step towards them; ending the conversation she had been involved in with Ed.

'What dating site's this?' Tammy questioned with a serious tone to her voice as she looked Eva in the eye. Her eyes opened wide with an intrigued look, wondering what Eva was up to.

'Oh, just some site. It's nothing,' Eva explained, not wanting to make a big deal out of it, especially while Tammy was around, she often seemed to over-exaggerate things.

'I thought those sites were just for old men to practice their paedophilia techniques,' Ed butted in.

'Oh shut-up Ed. At this rate _you're _gonna end up as one of those men,' Scarlett warned. Ed suddenly went quiet as he thought about Scarlett's words, realising it was likely to turn out true.

'So have you met anyone yet or not?' Scarlett asked again in excitement, her voice becoming higher-pitched the further her sentence went on. Eva sighed to herself before answering.

'I've met this one guy, he seems kinda cool, I guess.'

'What's he like?' Tammy asked, not liking this idea at the very least, but trying to keep her opinions to herself for once.

'Different. He's fun to talk to, I dunno, we have a lot in common.' Scarlett grabbed her arm, linking it with hers as she dragged Eva back over in the direction of the bar, leaving Tammy and Ed alone again. She knew Eva wasn't going to spill a single thing whilst they were around.

'You gonna meet him then? You should _so_ meet him, E!'

'Yeah. Maybe.. I mean, I met Max online and he was who he said he was. So…' As Eva finished her sentence, Scarlett began to look deep in thought before replying.

'What's he told you about himself? You know, you can usually figure out if he's real from that.'

'He's 17, lives around here somewhere. No parents. Likes people. Fuck, I dunno.' As she paused, thinking about what else to say, Scarlett was adding everything Eva had already said up in her head. She glanced around the room of the club, focusing her eyes sharply on Luke, just for several seconds. He was off dancing with some pretty girl whilst his lips appeared practically glued to hers. She shook the idea out of her head; Luke would _never _result in internet dating, that was far too out of character. She looked quickly back to Eva as she noticed her eyes had followed her gaze.

'What are you looking at?' She asked, her usual smile still shining on her face.

'Oh, just Luke. Funny to think a couple of months ago I let him fuck me. Look at him, all over every girl in sight.'

'Give him a break, he's just trying to get over Tam. Appears to be the only way he knows how,' Eva replied, sticking up for her friend.

'Yeah, _so_, enough about that wanker. When are you gonna meet this new hottie?'

'I dunno Scar, I thought maybe it's too soon.'

'Cmon E, live a little. How about I come along again, for moral support. I'll hide in a tree or something.' She paused, watching Eva's facial expressions carefully. 'So we have ourself a deal?'

'Okay. Fuck it, let's do it.' She clapped her hands together nervously, the smile on her face still refusing to fade. 'Thanks, Scar.;'

'What are best friends for, ay?' Scarlett replied, as they began to walk outside, realising the others had gone that way.

'Thought you didn't believe in best friends,' Eva said with a laugh. Scarlett stared at Eva and laughed back.

'Them believing in me made me realise I should probably return the favour.'


End file.
